Using Simple Simulation to Teach Midwifery Skills

by Vicki Van Wagner, RM, PhD, Hedrey Chu, RM

ABSTRACT

Simulation has become a vital part of health care education. Growing evidence supports its use to assist students in learning both basic and emergency skills. Expensive simulation models exist and some offer midwifery students excellent learning opportunities. However, many simulations can be highly effective and much more accessible to both students and instructors when handmade from ordinary household objects. Based on experience using simulation as part of the Ryerson Midwifery Education Program curriculum, we describe how to create simple models that can be used in the classroom, with preceptors in the clinical setting or by midwifery students independently. We also explain how we use household objects to augment commercial teaching models to make simulations more realistic.

KEYWORDS

simulation, midwifery education, clinical education